Archmagos Antona studied the strange assembly before him.
If the memory banks held no errors, the Archmagos recalled that in the Imperial Navy, the captain was generally the highest authority aboard any vessel.
Yet what stood before him now was a figure in white robes at the forefront, with a Magos and a captain flanking either side.
“…$##$%…”
“Tell me your purpose, Imperial Navy.”
Bonar looked at the figure, one whose body likely had very little flesh remaining.
Through Psychic Vision, the life signs were precarious at best, sustained entirely by the surrounding mechanical apparatus.
Bonar had little understanding of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
What knowledge he possessed had come entirely from the spoken accounts of Captain Dakan and Horus.
The Adeptus Mechanicus had originally been a power entrenched on Mars.
Before the Great Crusade began, the Emperor of Mankind had gone to Mars in person and, by means unknown, persuaded the Adeptus Mechanicus to join the Imperium.
These red-robed figures venerated a being called the Omnissiah, the Machine God, holding that the Machine God was the sovereign ruler of all machinery in the world.
They pursued mechanical augmentation of their own flesh with tireless zeal, each seeking to draw ever closer to the Machine God.
Mortals were driven by desire.
Astartes pursued glory.
These red-robed figures were consumed by an insatiable hunger for knowledge.
Every one of them would chase each scrap of knowledge with relentless dedication, even xenos knowledge, hoarding it away and refusing to share it with other Tech-Priests.
Now, Bonar intended to break that pattern entirely.
“We have a small proposition for you.
I wonder whether Archmagos Antona would find it acceptable?”
“&($…&, I need to know what you are offering.”
…
Bonar shot Magos Dokson a look.
Only then did Magos Dokson begin transmitting the data, with obvious reluctance.
Archmagos Antona seemed puzzled, but checked the data for viruses before proceeding to examine what Magos Dokson had sent.
And then,
Bonar watched with his own eyes as black smoke began rising from Archmagos Antona’s head.
The amplifier nearby erupted with a torrent of Binary at incredible speed.
Magos Dokson responded in kind.
Bonar knew the two of them must have exchanged a great deal.
He couldn’t understand a word of it.
In the end, only after watching the two of them burn through nearly a dozen processing boards did they finally turn and look at him together.
“I still need to personally verify the Dark Mechanicum Charter that Magos Dokson spoke of.”
Bonar handed the parchment over.
Archmagos Antona’s mechadendrites opened it themselves.
Written upon it:
1. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Activate Abominable Intelligence.
2.
Lift the majority of weapons prohibitions, with a strict tiered classification system to ensure these weapons are only deployed when necessary.
3.
Every Adeptus Mechanicus personnel who joins the Dark Mechanicum must contribute 50% of their exclusive knowledge and technology to be shared among all Dark Mechanicum members.
Archmagos Antona read it over several times, confirming that what was written on the parchment was indeed what it appeared to be.
Then looked toward Bonar.
“These are not in accordance with the rules set down by Mars.
Nor with those of the Imperium.”
Bonar smiled back.
“I never said I was loyal to the Imperium.”
In that instant, Archmagos Antona felt the equivalent of hackles rising.
Within a single nanosecond the order was issued.
The surrounding Skitarii soldiers reacted immediately, and the concealed killing machines began to power on.
In the blink of an eye, an unknown force suppressed them all.
The Skitarii soldiers let out meaningless garbled code and collapsed to the ground writhing.
The killing machines emitted a wail of tearing metal, twisted by an invisible force into crumpled heaps of scrap.
A Psyker.
Archmagos Antona already felt as though half of the body was on its way to meet the Machine God.
And yet Bonar was still smiling.
“Archmagos, what you need to understand is this.”
“If I wanted to kill you, I would not have gone to such elaborate lengths.”
“I came here with genuine intent to speak with you.”
“…%($%%&*”
Archmagos Antona’s processors ran at full speed, analyzing the situation at a furious pace.
But judging from what had just happened, there was only a 0.00000014% chance of escaping this situation.
The precision with which the other party wielded Psychic Power was nothing short of terrifying.
“My soul belongs only to the great Omnissiah.”
Bonar laughed, twice.
“There may be some misunderstanding.
I am not here to deliver you into the embrace of Chaos Daemons.”
“I simply want to shatter this rotten and decrepit Imperium.
Nothing more.”
“I have no intention of becoming a servant of the Warp gods.”
Antona’s processors burned again.
Two had just blown out, and current processing speed was lagging.
“And if I still refuse?” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Bonar’s smile remained just as mild.
But the words that followed were cold, cold enough that Archmagos Antona was reminded of the long-ago days when cold could still be felt.
“I will kill you, and then find your apprentices.”
“If your apprentices refuse, I will kill them too, and move on to the next level down.
Until every last one of them has been killed.”
“If all of you would rather die than yield, then I will have Magos Dokson take over this place.”
Bonar stood and looked out through the viewport at the enormous machines operating outside, great numbers of mechanical constructs and Servitors laboring beneath them.
“Humanity now faces ever more powerful enemies.
Yet almost everyone is no different from ten thousand years ago.”
“Oh — that’s not quite right.
I misspoke.
Humanity is worse than ten thousand years ago.”
“Archmagos Antona, perhaps you never witnessed the era of the Great Crusade ten thousand years past and cannot comprehend the brilliance of that age.
Humanity today is utterly wretched by comparison.”
“I no longer care about any damned prohibitions.
I don’t care whether Abominable Intelligence might ignite a second War of Iron.
I don’t care whether those dangerous weapons might shatter the entire galaxy.”
“What I care about now is using every available force — even if that force comes from Chaos, Heretics, or xenos.
As long as it can pull humanity back from the edge of extinction, I will bear the infamy and use it.”
“What we need are more powerful weapons, a larger fleet, and an unshakeable will.”
“If humanity is destined to be the loser in this galaxy, then I will drag the entire galaxy into the abyss along with it.”
“Do you understand, Archmagos?”
Archmagos Antona fell silent.
This time, no Wetware was spent on calculation.
The Archmagos simply looked at Bonar.
For reasons that defied easy analysis, these words, which by every orthodox measure should have been Heretic ravings demanding condemnation, did not inspire the expected fury.
Instead, there was something else.
A strange pull.
A peculiar compulsion to act on them.
Archmagos Antona ran through a calm analysis, and then gave an answer.
“Then I will join.
I want to become the first Fabricator General of the Dark Mechanicum.”
“But of course.
Welcome — let us fight together for the future of humanity.”
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